Photos: GMU Law Students Relax at ‘Puppy Day’

A little puppy love is helping law students at George Mason University’s Virginia Square campus get through the stress of final exams.

Students had three hours to leave the books behind and cuddle with some furry friends during “Puppy Day.”

A law school staff member came up with the idea last spring, and the event has since become a tradition for every final exam week in the spring and fall.

The study break is also beneficial for the pups, who are brought in from A Forever Home Rescue Foundation. Representatives from the dog rescue group were on hand to assist with giving out information and to help those interested in adopting one of the puppies.

Seems like you’re lumping a lot of factors in to one characterization about being “to [sic] picky”. For different types of rescues – and based on my experience adopting a dog from AWLA – there are different considerations on which a shelter would rely in permitting a particular adoption. Most of these conditions/criteria are established to maximize the success of the adoption. If you want a puppy, AWLA requires that certain criteria be met. For an older dog of a given size or exercise requirement, they have established other criteria with home type. They do behavioral workups on each dog regarding: socialization with both people and/or animals, resource guarding, fearfulness, housebreaking, and other factors. Based on these workups, they try to invoke certain criteria … adult-only adoptions, kids only above certain age, no dog parks, etc. As an adopter, I am glad that they try to set up everyone involved for success.

My dog – of a breed, size, and age that I had not expected to adopt – is much better off because AWLA was as picky as they are. That’s my take.

Elmer

I’m with you 100%. AWLA does great work.

Maria

I second everything WeiQiang said. The article you linked to is full of really extreme examples that certainly seem ridiculous. However, while I can’t speak for rescue groups, shelters that are “picky” are validly trying to find successful homes for their animals. The requirements are not arbitrary, as WeiQiang mentioned. If the shelter knows an animal has had trouble with children, they are not going to adopt to a family with children. Might that animal have been okay? Sure, but why not help guide families to an animal better suited to their circumstances? Some animals are trickier to adopt, as their personalities are very specific, and if they go to the wrong home, they often end up returned, sometimes multiple times, which is very disheartening and not good for the animal.

Arlingtoon

“Rover, I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that you’ve been adopted. The bad news is that your new owner is a lawyer.”

http://www.arlnow.com Lauren

what precious puppies. I hope they all find good homes. Awwww!!!

Just remember – don’t leave them tied up outside of stores. Some may call animal control because you’ve abandoned your pup

(That’s my regular public announcement)

Frank

Lauren,
Be glad that people actually care enough to make sure that someone didn’t abandon a dog left outside tied up –

It happens far too often and sometimes stupid people think it’s ok to tie a dog up in extreme heat and/or cold while they drink in a bar for hours, or shop for hours, or sometimes they just abandon the dog. And even more fun, sometimes, some of hte local dogfighting groups (yes, we have them) use those tied up dogs as bait dogs. Yes Laurn, it happens. It happens all the time.

Or, how about this, the dog gets hurt because some bonehead steps on him/her, or trips on him/her. Or gets a quick bite because they do something that frightens the dog…so the dog gets hit by the person….

Smart people don’t tie up their dog unattended.

Smart people know that an animal, without supervision, could somehow get out of a collar, have another human untie him/her, and the dog could be anxious and start looking for his/her human.

“Standing at 87.6%, the overall employment rate for new law school graduates is the lowest it has been since 1996.”

“Even more startling, perhaps, is the fact that only 50.9% reported working in private practice. You have to go back to 1975 and 1976 to find comparable figures.”

“…of those graduates for whom employment was known, only 68.4% obtained a job for which bar passage is required….the lowest percentage NALP has ever measured.”

“Consider that for the Class of 2010, only 71% of the jobs reported were both full-time and permanent. Overall, nearly
27% of all jobs taken by members of this class were classified as temporary”

“…we can expect that the overall employment rate for new law school graduates will continue to be stagnant or decline further for the Class of 2011, with the curve probably not trending upward before the employment statistics become available for the Class of 2012.”